Constant Pen Chewing

[Dan_K]

Hi everyone,

I've got a question about Bob chewing on the buns metal pen. He goes mad at it for periods each morning and evening, normally waking me up about 5am really going at it and I can only think of the following possibles:

(1) He's desperate to escape;
(2) He's hungry; or
(3) He's doing it to keep his teeth down.

I've discounted (1) because when I open the pen up when I get home from work to let them run free he normally hops about for 5 minutes then goes back in the pen anyway so it's not like he's desperate for exercise.

There are also other things to chew in the cage but he doesn't pay attention to them, and never has.

I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions that might help him stop doing this. They have constant access to hay and chewable wood. Mavis displays none of this behaviour whatsoever, although she also ignores the wooden chew toys!!!

Now I know it's quite a common thing for buns to do this but he really goes mad at it, so was just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences

 

[@Debs111]

Do you always go down to him when he does it when he wakes you up?If so, he could be doing it for attentiom!

 

[AlisonA]

I think he probably wants to get out - it's the lack of choice as much as anything - that he can't go out when he chooses.

I thought they were free range in the kitchen all the time with the pen just as a base?

 

[Dan_K]

When I got Mavis I moved them to a quieter room. They have a cage in the corner which is open to the room which is penned off to an area about 6ft square. However when I'm in the house I open that up so they have free run into the hallway and kitchen too.

I thought it was him wanting to get out too, but even wwhen they have so much more space he never really ventures out much!

 

[loopylop]

Sophie doesn't do it on the cage so much but she does do it on the PWS run. She can have the whole house to run in, but i panel the sofa and tv etc off with the run (cause of cables) but she will sit there for ages making it her mission to chew the run :roll: :roll: :roll: I think she knows what is behind the pws panels and just gets annopyed that she can't get to it!

 

[BevBunny]

Charlie does it a lot, and Lavender is beginning to copy him. I got into the habit of going and talking to him when he was doing it and telling him to stop it, and then realised that was the worst thing I could do as it made it worse cos he used it to get attention. Do you normally go to him when he does it? I've spent the last 6 months completely ignoring it and he does it a lot less.

I decided that if he'd got food, toys and his teeth were OK then I was just going to let him get on with it.

 

[Diddeen]

Fifi does it sometimes too... some mornings one side of the playpen has been moved as she pushes and pulls it whilst biting it! :roll: :roll:

 

[Inimical Me]

Fidget used to do it in the middle of the night, and I'd give her food to shut her up :roll: . Obviously, that didn't help :roll: :lol: .

 

[Tamsin]

Cable tie some strips of chewable wood over the area he likes best. That should be quieter and better for his teeth